Gerda Hasselfeldt (born 7 July 1950) is a German politician of the
Christian Social Union (CSU) who served as deputy chairperson of the
CDU/CSU
CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...
parliamentary group and chairwoman of the Bundestag group of CSU parliamentarians. Following her departure from active politics, she became President of the
German Red Cross
The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany.
With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services withi ...
in 2018.
Political career
An economist by training, Hasselfeldt first became a Member of the German
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
after the
1987 federal elections. She was appointed
Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development by then-Chancellor
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
in a
cabinet reshuffle
A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parli ...
two years later.
From 1991, Hasselfeldt served as
Federal Minister for Health. She announced her resignation on 27 April 1992, saying the arrest of her close aide Reinhard Hoppe for allegedly spying for Poland had damaged her health. She was succeeded by
Horst Seehofer
Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister of the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the 18 ...
.
Hasselfeldt was financial policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for seven years. In 2002, she became the first deputy chairwoman of the parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairwoman Angela Merkel. During the
2005 election campaign, she took charge of agriculture, consumer protection and the environment in Merkel’s nine-member shadow cabinet.
After the federal elections in
2005 and 2009, Hasselfeldt was elected
Vice President of the German Bundestag. She held this office until she was elected to the head of the Bundestag group of CSU parliamentarians in 2011, succeeding
Hans-Peter Friedrich. From 2011 until 2017, she led the group with her co-chair from the CDU,
Volker Kauder.
In that capacity, Hasselfeldt was also a member of the parliament's
Council of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigning committee chairpersons based on party representation. Hasselfeldt also served on the Committee on the Election of Judges, which is in charge of appointing judges to the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its in ...
. From 2014, she was also a member of a parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the other Highest Courts of Justice, namely the
Federal Court of Justice
The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...
(BGH), the
Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the
Federal Fiscal Court
The Federal Fiscal Court (''Bundesfinanzhof'') is one of five federal supreme courts of Germany, established according to Article 95 of the Basic Law. It is the federal court of appeal for tax and customs matters in cases which have already bee ...
(BFH), the
Federal Labour Court
The Federal Labour Court (''Bundesarbeitsgericht'') is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law (mostly concerning contracts of employment) and collective labour law (e.g. cases concerning st ...
(BAG), and the
Federal Social Court
The Federal Social Court (''Bundessozialgericht'') is the German federal court of appeals for social security cases, mainly cases concerning the public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident insu ...
(BSG).
In the negotiations to form a
coalition government following the
2013 federal elections, Hasselfeldt was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
,
Horst Seehofer
Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister of the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the 18 ...
and
Sigmar Gabriel
Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
.
In April 2016, Hasselfeldt announced that she would not stand in the
2017 federal elections and, instead, resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.
Life after politics
From 2018 until 2019, Hasselfeldt served on the German government's so-called coal commission, which is tasked to develop a masterplan before the end of the year on how to
phase-out coal and create a new economic perspective for the country's coal-mining regions. In 2019, she was appointed by
Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller as co-chair (alongside
Bärbel Dieckmann
Bärbel Dieckmann ( Pritz, born 26 March 1949) is a German politician who was elected mayor of Bonn in 1994 and was in office until 2009. She is the first woman and Social Democrat to become mayor of Bonn.
Early life and education
The daughter ...
) of a commission in charge of drafting recommendations on how to address the causes of displacement and migration.
Political views
Social policy
When members of the Merkel's Christian Democrats in 2012 called on parliament to grant gay couples the same tax benefits as married heterosexuals, Hasselfeldt and successfully railed against the idea." Marriage between a man and a woman must be especially protected because it is fundamentally oriented towards the propagation of life —which isn't the case in homosexual relationships," said Hasselfeldt. In June 2017, she voted against Germany's introduction of
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
.
In a 2012 letter to
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...
CEO
Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, Hasselfeldt asked the online retailer to suspend sales of a children's puzzle bearing the image of the crematorium at the
Dachau concentration camp, calling the product 'a slap in the face' for
Holocaust victims
Holocaust victims were people targeted by the government of Nazi Germany based on their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, or sexual orientation. The institutionalized practice by the Nazis of singling out and persecuting people resulte ...
. Just 12 miles from the Bavarian capital Munich, Dachau lies within Hasselfeldt's constituency.
In 2014, Hasselfeldt publicly rejected complaints against her party over its slogan "those who commit fraud will be
ickedout" - a claim that migrant workers could exploit
social welfare
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
.
European policies
A proponent of strict austerity policies during the
Eurozone crisis
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...
, Hasselfeldt helped organize a majority of German lawmakers to approve a series of measures to assist Greece recover from its
government debt crisis. In 2011, she demanded that Italy must do more to convince financial markets of its creditworthiness after a rating downgrade by
Standard & Poor's. In 2013, she said Germany was watching France "with a degree of concern" and criticized French President
François Hollande for not implementing spending cuts and structural reforms with "sufficient vigor." In a reaction to the European Commission's decision to give France two extra years to cut its deficit in early 2015, Hasselfeldt wrote to the body's president
Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...
in a letter to say that the timing of the decision – coinciding with the euro zone vehemently urging
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
to stick to rules set by the Eurogroup despite significant domestic resistance – "should not create the dangerous impression that we want to apply double standards," and that the same rules needed to apply to all countries whatever their size.
Criticizing
Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014.
A politicia ...
's 2012 road map for a eurozone-wide fiscal policy, Hasselfeldt rejected proposals for a "eurozone fiscal capacity", arguing the idea looked to her like a "transfer union."
In the context of
Turkey's largely failed attempted to ban microblogging
Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...
service
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
in 2014, Hasselfeldt reaffirmed that "
erposition has always been that Turkey should not be allowed into the EU, and that we are pursuing the principle of privileged partnership." In 2016, Hasselfeldt warned that Britain should not expect to have preferential treatment in case of a
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
, saying "to me, it is clear: exit means exit. Citizens have to know that with this decision there will be no special treatment for Britain."
NSA surveillance and Edward Snowden
In 2014, Hasselfeldt blocked an opposition bid to bring
Edward Snowden to Germany to testify, saying that inviting Snowden to Germany would harm relations with the U.S. and probably force the German government to extradite him to face U.S. espionage charges for unveiling
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...
data on surveillance.
Other activities
* German Foundation for Active Citizenship and Volunteering (DSEE), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020)
*
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...
, Member of the Board of Trustees
* Eugen Biser Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board
*
Hanns Seidel Foundation, Member of the Board
*
Jewish Museum, Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses ...
, Member of the Board of Trustees
*
Federal Academy for Security Policy
The Federal Academy for Security Policy (german: Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, BAKS) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy
Security policy is ...
(BAKS), Member of the Advisory Board (2015-2018)
Advisory Board
Federal Academy for Security Policy
The Federal Academy for Security Policy (german: Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, BAKS) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy
Security policy is ...
(BAKS).
* Arnold Knoblauch Institute, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees (2002-2011)
* Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (german: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It ...
(BaFin), Member of the Administrative Council (1998-2011)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasselfeldt, Gerda
1950 births
Living people
Female members of the Bundestag
Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria
Federal government ministers of Germany
Health ministers of Germany
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
German Roman Catholics
People from Straubing
21st-century German women politicians
Women federal government ministers of Germany
Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017
Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013
Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009
Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005
Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002
Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998
Members of the Bundestag 1990–1994
Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria
20th-century German women